


The Spring Freckle, and the Unexpected Seduction of Kathryn Janeway

by WillaS



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:33:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29859531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillaS/pseuds/WillaS
Summary: “It’s your freckle,” he explained, and she furrowed her brow. “The spring freckle. I noticed it yesterday when you got back from the planet.”“It was sunny.”“I’ve always liked it, you know. It’s cute.”“It’s not cute,” she protested quickly, which made her blush again, and the giddiness it ignited in him was solely responsible for the boldest move yet in his relationship with Captain Kathryn Janeway.“It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispered, and gently tapped her nose with his index finger.
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Comments: 12
Kudos: 75





	The Spring Freckle, and the Unexpected Seduction of Kathryn Janeway

**Author's Note:**

> Set late in their journey.

“Kathryn, are you sure I can’t get you anyth—”  
Chakotay turned to her.  
Chuckled.  
Shook his head.  
They’d been in orbit of an M-class planet for three days and the entire crew had had the opportunity to take some shore leave.  
After two full days of “Commander, let me assure you I don’t need a break”, he had a word with the Doctor, who then threatened her with an official reprimand if she didn’t “breathe some fresh air and replenish your Vitamin D reserves with some natural sunshine, Captain”.  
She was leaving Voyager early doors, but he’d asked to be informed when she was ready to disembark, because he knew all her tricks and therefore was going to beam her off the ship himself.  
When he arrived at the transporter room, it was apparent that she was still in a huff, which made him want to laugh so hard he had to bite the inside of his cheek.  
He dismissed the Ensign in charge and stood behind the console.  
“I hope you have a beautiful day, Captain,” he said and gave her a full-dimpled smile.  
She gave him the Janeway stare in return.  
“I knew this is all your doing, Chakotay,” she half-whispered. “I’ll get you back one day when you least expect it.”  
“I’m counting on it, Captain. Ready?”  
“I shall be back at 20:00 and I will want a full maintenance report from you.”  
“My shift finishes at 18:00, Captain,” he said, and shook his head in fake disappointment. “I guess it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow.”  
“In your dreams, Commander,” she said and stood up even straighter. “You can brief me in your quarters for all I care.”  
“Fine,” he said. “Whatever you want. But are you ready now?”  
“Wipe that smug grin off your face, I’m going,” she said, and he watched her fight her own smile seconds before she blurred into nothingness.  
True to her word she’d shown up at his quarters, demanded to hear the maintenance report, but then proceeded to tell him about her day. She’d been on a hike, discovered flowers that looked “like daffodils but if an elephant was a daffodil, and tiny, you know what I mean, Chakotay?”, and no, he wasn’t familiar with daffodils, but he’d listened to her, smiling and nodding, all the while congratulating himself on a job well done. Happy Captain, happy ship.  
And now she’d fallen asleep, curled up in his chair.  
His tea forgotten, he walked slowly towards her.  
“Kathryn,” he said.  
Nothing.  
He smiled and knelt down in front of her.  
“Kathryn,” he whispered, but she didn’t stir.  
He shook his head and regarded her face.  
Funny how you can look at someone all day every day and yet not really look at them at all, he thought. He hadn’t really looked at her in a long time, and of course there were good reasons for it, but he would allow himself this moment to really take her in.  
The truth was, he missed her.  
Which was ridiculous, because how can you possibly miss someone you a.) never had, and b.) saw all the time?  
But things, life, had become more complicated over the years, darker somehow, and full of distractions. He hadn’t realized he was still in love with her until he watched the way the alien Jaffen looked at her, and it sent him off kilter for quite a while.  
He’d confided in B’Elanna, and they came to the conclusion that maybe there was too much water under the bridge for him to do anything about it, besides, the Captain was clearly a bit heartbroken over the whole affair, but Chakotay had to acknowledge to himself that this love he felt for her, as inconvenient as it may be, and as painful as it was, also sustained him.  
And once Jaffen was off the ship, and that sad look in her eyes had finally cleared many weeks later, it became once again easy to deal with.  
“Kathryn,” he tried again and gently touched her hair, but she didn’t wake, she only sniffled once and smiled.  
He looked at her nose and huffed a small laugh.  
“Hello, old friend,” he said and had to stop himself from reaching out and touching the freckle.  
The first time he’d seen it had been on New Earth. Approximately two days after they arrived.  
He’d pointed it out to her, and she’d rolled her eyes.  
Then she told him the story about her sister always teasing her about it. Apparently, the moment the freckle showed it was officially spring. “It comes out as soon as the sun is strong enough and brings warmth,” Kathryn had said, then laughed. “Phoebe always said it should be part of the star charts. You know, the spring freckle, visible in the northern hemisphere from March to September. She’s always been such a silly sausage.”  
“Takes one to know one,” he’d said to her.  
He didn’t have the heart to wake her now, and even thought his chair was not ideal for sleeping, he decided to let her rest.  
He took his blanket off the bed and covered her.  
When she still didn’t stir, he decided to head to bed himself.  
“Computer, lights off,” he said and as he watched the planet and the stars and moons of this system through the window, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of wonder at the presence of the spring freckle, visible in the Delta Quadrant whenever the sun came out.

As usual he was up before his alarm the next morning.  
He’d been acutely aware of her presence in the other room as he was trying to go to sleep the night before, and now he tiptoed across his bedroom to see if she was still asleep.  
But she wasn’t.  
She was gone.  
She’d neatly folded the blanket and placed it on the chair she’d slept in.  
“Computer,” he said. “Locate Captain Janeway.”  
“Captain Janeway is on the bridge.”  
“Of course, she is,” he mumbled.  
He took a quick shower and headed there himself.  
In the turbolift he took a deep breath.  
This could go one of two ways, he thought. If she was in a good mood, she’ll be pleasant and pretend last night never happened, if she was in a bad mood, she’d ask him to her ready room and tell him off for allowing her to fall asleep and leaving her there, never mind having made her take shore leave.  
He pulled on his collar.  
Why were things so hard?  
“Good morning, Commander,” she greeted him, and he almost tripped over his own feet. “Sorry about last night. I don’t usually fall asleep on people.”  
Tom Paris swung his chair around and gaped at them.  
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Mister Paris. And eyes front,” she barked.  
“I’ll try to not take it personally,” Chakotay said, grinned, and sat down next to her.  
She was typing, but she was smiling, and he was suddenly beyond intrigued.  
He glanced sideways just as she was doing the same, and their eyes held for a second, and his stomach felt like he’d swallowed a gallon of popping candy.  
He fully expected her to say something witty, but she didn’t say anything.  
She didn’t say anything for a full five minutes, and when he looked at her again, she met his gaze, held it, and when he looked at the freckle, he felt caught and breathless, and she watched him with almost scientific fascination.  
What was happening?  
After the last of the supplies had been beamed on board, they left orbit, and she left the bridge for her ready room.  
She told him she expected next month’s crew roster by fifteen hundred hours, and he walked into her ready room on the dot.  
“Thank you, Commander,” she said as he put the PADD down on her desk.  
“I also have Neelix’s list of food items we now have on board. And because some of the fruit and vegetables don’t keep, he’s invited everyone to the mess hall tonight to celebrate the mission’s success.”  
“He’s a gem,” she said, took the PADD and wrinkled her nose.  
He chuckled.  
“What?” she asked, not looking up.  
“Nothing.”  
She put the PADD down again and looked at him with a pained expression.  
“You know reports on food items bore me. Anything mess hall related bores me.”  
“Unless it’s about coffee,” he teased, and even the mention of it made her perk right up.  
“Naturally,” she said.  
“Alright, give me that back then, I’ll look at the food items. But you’re going to have to show your face tonight. Nineteen hundred.”  
He leant forward and reached for the PADD, she looked up at him, and there it was again: the spring freckle.  
He couldn’t remember exactly when it had disappeared after New Earth. Two, maybe three weeks? It came back, of course, when they had the incident with the Kazon not too long after, but he could barely look at it at the time, because it was too gentle a thing and there was no place for gentleness then.  
“Chakotay?” she asked and pulled him right out of his freckle-crazed daydream.  
“Sorry, I got distracted.”  
“By my nose?”  
“Yes. No. I mean, yes.”  
She glared at him, and he couldn’t work out for a second if she was amused or annoyed or alarmed or possibly all of the above.  
“It’s your freckle,” he explained, and she furrowed her brow. “The spring freckle. I noticed it yesterday when you got back from the planet.”  
“It was sunny.”  
“Good,” he said and smiled down at her. “I’ve always liked it, you know. It’s cute.”  
She blushed then and, Spirits, had her eyes always been that blue?  
“It’s not cute,” she protested quickly, which made her blush again, and the giddiness it ignited in him was solely responsible for the boldest move yet in his relationship with Captain Kathryn Janeway.  
“It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispered, gently tapped her nose with his index finger, and strode towards the door. Just before it could open, he turned around again and, like the last two minutes had never happened, said: “I’ll pick you up at nineteen hundred tonight.”  
He couldn’t decipher the look she gave him, but he knew they were charting new territory.  
It made him so giddy.  
And so terrified.

When he got off shift, he went back to his quarters and had a long hot water shower.  
He hadn’t stopped thinking about her, and that damn freckle, and suddenly, as he was lathering up with soap, it occurred to him that he’d never quite told her the truth about the way he felt about her.  
Not those three little words he’d never said, yet knew she’d understood and carried with her, but three different words that made his heart race and his toes curl: I desire you.  
And he did. He’d desired her way before he started loving her, and every time he thought his love had overridden his craving for her, life happened and proved him oh so wrong.  
His cock twitched at the sheer thought of telling her, and he looked down at himself and groaned.  
He changed the temperature of the water to nearly freezing and stood there until he could no longer feel any of his extremities.  
Good.  
He shook his head.  
Who’d ever heard of a freckle giving anyone an erection?

He rang her chime at exactly nineteen hundred hours.  
The doors opened and he stepped into her quarters.  
“Just a second,” she called from the bedroom.  
“There’s no rush. I’ve seen the menu,” he joked.  
She appeared moments later wearing a dress that resembled the colour of her eyes and hugged her body in the most unassuming yet deeply sensual way.  
He gave her a blatant once over, and she quirked up her eyebrows at him.  
“Am I still cute, Commander?” she asked.  
“No,” he said and wondered if he could maybe read her mind if looked into her eyes hard enough. She stood stock still suddenly and he took three paces across the room towards her.  
She smelled of Jasmin and vanilla.  
“You’re beautiful.”  
She held his gaze and took a shallow breath before retorting: “I’m a middle-aged woman, Chakotay.”  
“You’re hardly middle aged yet.”  
“You only say that because you can’t bear to think where that puts you.”  
He let his eyes dance over her face, clocked the treacherous freckle, and was so tempted to tell her the truth then and there.  
He lost his nerve the second her eyes went to his mouth.  
“Ready?” he asked and offered her his arm.  
“Yes, of course, ready,” she said and cleared her throat.  
She didn’t let go of his arm until they reached the mess hall.  
They mingled but ended up in close proximity of each other again and again throughout the evening, and he wondered if they’d always done that.  
He knew he looked for her when he entered a room, but surely that was more of a habit than anything else now.  
Tonight felt so different though, of course it did, because he’d looked at her and seen not only that freckle, but a version of Kathryn Janeway he hadn’t considered in the longest time.  
Truth be told, he’d tried to stop thinking about her as a sexual being a long time ago, when the knowledge that others had experienced her like that, but he hadn’t, became impossible to bear.  
But somehow the discovery of that damn spring freckle had changed everything.  
He wanted her like he hadn’t wanted her.  
Like, he wanted her!  
He wanted to crawl under her skin, get inside her, own her, take her apart completely. He wanted to know her secrets, wanted to know what she was like when no one was watching. Wanted to sit beside the tub when she was having a bath and reach under the water and between her legs and make her come with his hand just because she’d let him.  
He quickly downed the drink he was holding.  
“Are you alright, old man?” B’Elanna asked and approached him. “You look a bit preoccupied.”  
He held her gaze but didn’t say anything. He took two steps to put his empty glass on a table.  
“Tastes like, I don’t know, melon?” he commented.  
“What the hell are you talking about?”  
“The drink.”  
“Are you feeling okay?”  
“No, not really,” he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. “B’Elanna, something stupid is happening to me, and I don’t know what to do about it.”  
“What do you mean, stupid?” she inquired. “You can be quite stupid, Chakotay, you know that, right?”  
“Gee, thanks.”  
“What have you done? Oh! Or should I ask whom?”  
He shook his head.  
“No, that’s not it. It’s more whom I haven’t ‘done’ as you so eloquently put it.”  
The next moment, B’Elanna was right in his face. “Chakotay, please tell me it’s not that same old song.”  
He didn’t need to answer.  
“Kahless, will you get a grip,” B’Elanna hissed. “What’s the matter with you?”  
He looked at his feet and shook his head again.  
She gripped his shoulders.  
“Listen to me now and listen to me very carefully, old man. If you still love her, really love her, you need to do more than stand around and daydream, do you understand?”  
“My thoughts exactly,” he said.  
“You know what, Chakotay? You’re a great guy, and once upon a time I wouldn’t have minded a little bit of, you know, personal time with you, but you’re an idiot.”  
“B’E, we’ve been over this again and again, she’s not going to cross that line.”  
B’Elanna gave him an exasperated shove and angry whispered: “Of course she’s not going to cross that line, you absolute P’takh, she can’t.”  
He looked away from her and scanned the room.  
Kathryn was talking to Neelix, which was a clear indication that she was about to disappear and leave everyone else to enjoy the party.  
“Excuse me,” he said to B’Elanna, smiled, and she stepped aside.  
“Men,” he heard her mumble under her breath. “You’re all idiots. I don’t know why we keep you around.”  
He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and she pushed him in the general direction of the Captain. “Get the hell out of here and do the right thing, you lovesick fool.”  
He walked over to the galley where Neelix had just lifted the lid of an enormous pot. He and the captain both looked inside, and Chakotay stood next to her to have a look, too.  
“It’s,” she said and paused. “I don’t know, what is it? Looks like spinach. Or kale?”  
“Yes, almost,” said Neelix. “It doesn’t taste as good, but like your spinach, it’s rich in iron. Here, have a taste.”  
“No, thank you, I really shouldn’t,” Kathryn said diplomatically.  
“Captain, I insist,” Neelix said.  
“Yes, a captain should always lead by example,” Chakotay chipped in.  
She glared at him, but obediently opened her mouth and took a spoonful of the swampy soup. He watched her face. She smiled.  
“This is delicious, Neelix,” she declared, and scooped another spoonful from the pot. She blew on it, then held it in front of Chakotay’s face.  
He was too mesmerized by the gesture to anything but open his mouth and let her feed him.  
It was the most disgusting thing he’s ever tasted.  
He half-coughed half-gagged but made himself swallow.  
Kathryn Janeway was looking at him in absolute triumph.  
“Thank you for tonight, Neelix,” she said and squeezed his arm. “It’s been the perfect ending to a perfect mission. Have a wonderful rest of the evening.”  
And as she glid past Chakotay, who was still trying to resist the gag reflex, she whispered to him: “I told you I’d get you back, Commander.”  
He wiped his mouth, nodded at Neelix, and went after her.  
He didn’t say anything until they were in the turbolift.  
“You play dirty, Janeway,” he said quietly, keeping his eyes front.  
He could feel her smiling next to him.  
He decided to test the water.  
He gently brushed the back of his hand against the back of her hand.  
When she didn’t move away, he did it again.  
His heart was beating wildly.  
He did it again.  
Then he felt her fingers weave through his, and suddenly they were holding hands and he didn’t dare breathe.  
She only let go when the doors swished open.  
Together they walked down the corridor, and he wasn’t going to say anything, but when he got to his quarters, he looked at her.  
“You know, you still owe me your company for a drink after so rudely abandoning me last night.”  
She smiled up at him.  
“I was exhausted,” she said. “My first officer made me go on shore leave. Fresh air makes me tired.”  
He checked on her freckle.  
She noticed, then looked at his mouth.  
“Are you coming in?” he asked.  
“Yes,” she said and stepped over the threshold.

“Coffee, tea? Or bleach to get rid of the swamp taste?” he asked, and she smiled.  
“Whiskey, please,” she said and kicked off her shoes. “I’m not entirely sure that stuff was even edible.”  
“Rich in iron,” he said and handed her a glass.  
“Thank you,” she smiled and took it.  
They drank, and when he looked back at her, she was already regarding him.  
They stood like that for a moment, and although they knew how to be silent in each other’s company, this felt different.  
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked finally, because she’d always been the braver one. He knew that.  
“I’m trying to read your mind,” he admitted.  
“You’re usually very good at that,” she said.  
“Am I?”  
She nodded. “You know you are.”  
“Well, I can’t read your mind today, and it’s making me nervous.”  
“Don’t be nervous,” she said, and he saw a shiver run through her.  
He took her free hand in his.  
“This may end in tears,” he whispered.  
“Yes,” was all she replied.  
For a terrifying second he thought his heart had stopped beating, but when it started pumping again, he brought her hand up to his lips.  
“I want to kiss you,” he whispered and gently put his mouth against the inside of her wrist. She took in a sharp breath and looked at him in a way she’d never looked at him before.  
“I want to kiss you everywhere,” he continued, and ran his lips up her arm. “Here,” he whispered and gently licked her gorgeous neck. “And here.” He nipped just behind her ear.  
She was shaking now.  
“Kathryn, if you tell me to stop right now, I promise you it won’t go any further. And I promise you I’ll never mention it again for as long as I live. But I need you to tell me.”  
She took his face in between her hands and looked at him. Her pupils were blown, and her breath was shallow and hurried.  
He took her glass from her other hand, put both their drinks back into the replicator, and pushed her slowly but gently against the bulkhead.  
He dipped his head and gently sucked on her neck again.  
He was hard and there was no point in trying to hide it, and she inhaled sharply as he pressed all of himself up against her little body.  
“Oh God, please, by all that is holy, kiss me already,” she said, and they came together in a hungry, open-mouthed kiss.  
“Spirits,” he mumbled, and had to steady himself to know which way was up.  
Kathryn Janeway was a formidable kisser. She went all in. It was so deeply erotic he wondered if she could make him come just by the way her tongue played with his.  
He needed more of her, and one hand found its way under her dress, and he was now drawing slow circles on her naked thigh.  
He could feel her heat, his fingers merely inches from touching her in the most intimate way, and when she moaned into his mouth it made his brain fizz.  
She slid her hand under his shirt and caressed his stomach and his chest. She ran a thumb around his nipple and pressed down.  
“Kathryn,” he breathed across her lips and she kissed him again.  
“Don’t stop, please, please don’t stop.”  
“I won’t,” he promised and licked across her lips and brushed his thumb over her panties.  
“God,” she breathed.  
“I’ve dreamed about touching you like this, Kathryn. Sometimes it feels like I’ve dreamed about it all my life.”  
“Oh,” she said when he finally pushed her panties aside and slid two fingers through her wet heat. “Oh!”  
“Kathryn Janeway, you drive me crazy. And that damn spring freckle. Thanks to your sister, the silly sausage.”  
She smiled a smile then that made her look ten years younger, and her eyes fell shut.  
He felt her hands travelling down his back, and along the seam of his pants to the front.  
She slid one hand down and touched his rock-hard cock.  
“God,” she said, but it was no more than a breathy sigh.  
“You know I love you,” he whispered, his voice shaking.  
“Yes,” she replied, and he put two fingers inside her. “Oh God. Kiss me again. Please.”  
He did and he couldn’t remember when he’d last felt this turned on. But to be fair, he couldn’t remember much of anything.  
“We’re really doing this, aren’t we?” she whispered against his swollen lips and he had to capture hers again then or he was sure he would die.  
“I certainly hope so,” he replied a moment later, looking deep into her beautiful eyes. “Because I’ve got my fingers inside you.”  
He felt her muscles contract around said fingers, and she groaned.  
He circled his thumb over her clit, and he could feel her body giving in to his caresses.  
He shifted, pulled away from her, and slid down her body until he was on his knees in front of her.  
He pushed her dress up and pulled her panties down, and she took a sharp breath.  
“Up,” he commanded and made her step out of them. She was unsteady on her legs and he held her firmly by her hips, pressed her against the bulkhead.  
“I’m going to taste you,” he announced somewhat redundantly, and he felt a bit silly just after he’d said it, but he couldn’t dwell on it as he was about live his wildest fantasy that may or may not make him come in his pants.  
He licked her once.  
“Oh,” she said so quietly, and he looked up at her.  
She was watching him with a look he’d never seen on her before. Eyes dark, lips swollen, her hair in complete disarray.  
“Spirits, Kathryn,” he mumbled, and then she came to life.  
She shoved her hands into his hair and pulled him back against her.  
“Taste me, but don’t make me come,” she commanded, and he smiled against her. “God, Chakotay, you’re good with your mouth.”  
He continued his ministrations and flicked his tongue only ever so gently over her. Barely touching her at all.  
She let out a throaty moan and pulled at him to come back up.  
He complied and stood.  
She took his right hand and put it on her left breast. He could feel her hard nipple through the fabric of the dress and her bra, and she proceeded to make him circle it with his index finger.  
He watched her watching him.  
“Do you like this?” he asked.  
“Yes,” she told him.  
“I think we should get naked.”  
“Yes.”  
He took her by the hand and walked her through to his bedroom. She was fully undressed before he’d even unbuttoned his shirt.  
He looked at her, mesmerized.  
“Come here,” he said and climbed onto the bed, holding out his hand for her.  
She took it and let him pull her towards him.  
He lay down on his back and pulled her on top of him.  
Having her against him for the first time, naked and warm and aroused felt like nothing he’d felt before.  
He rolled them over and covered her fully with his body.  
“I love you,” he whispered and took one of her nipples in his mouth. “And I desire you.”  
She reached between them and took his cock in her small hand.  
“I desire you, too,” she said and looked at him as she was stroking him. “You are beautiful.”  
He gave her a full-dimpled smirk.  
“You only say that because you want something.”  
She grinned up at him.  
“Oh yeah? And what is it I want?”  
“The thing you’re holding in your hand.”  
“How can I want it if I’m already holding it?” she asked and kissed him. “I really like it, by the way,” she whispered against his lips.  
“That’s good,” he said, and kissed her again.  
“Get inside me,” she said after a blissful minute or so of them rubbing against each other. She spread her legs for him, and he swore he would have fallen over if he hadn’t been lying down.  
He slid into her wet heat slowly. She was looking at him, her mouth slightly open, her skin blushed in the most delightful shade of pink.  
Once he was buried inside her, she wrapped her legs around him and pulled him even closer.  
“Spirits, Kathryn, don’t move or this is all over,” he said and rested his forehead on her chest.  
She pulled him towards her by his neck and kissed him. His cock was twitching inside her, desperate for friction and he groaned.  
“Chakotay, fuck me.”  
“Spirits.”  
He lifted her hips ever so slightly to get a better angle and started fucking her.  
He watched her carefully, so he’d know what felt good for her, and she wiggled underneath him, completely lost in the sensation.  
“Harder,” she demanded, and he bit his lip.  
“I don’t want to hurt you.”  
“Harder,” she told him again, this time looking up at him in a way that meant business. “No more holding back, fuck me. I want to feel you.”  
He shifted to get better leverage and pounded into her.  
“Yes!”  
“Kathryn.”  
“Oh, yes, keep doing that. Oh God, yes. Don’t you dare stop. Oh God, I’ll come.”  
“I want you to come, Kathryn,” he whispered, breathless. “I want to watch you fall apart in my arms. I want to come inside you, and I want to be the only one who ever gets to come inside you again. Spirits, I’m crazy about you. You feel so good. So hot. So tight.”  
“I’m coming, Chakotay, oh God, don’t stop, don’t, oh, oh, yes, oh God!”  
He kept fucking her hard, kept fucking her even when she stilled, and he could see her orgasm wash over her. Her skin looked like it was glowing, her body felt like a live wire, and it only took him two, three more desperate thrusts before he spilt himself inside her in a shattering orgasm.  
He collapsed on top of her, his head on her chest.  
Wondering if he was dead.  
He had to be dead.  
He was floating.  
His ears were ringing.  
He couldn’t open his eyes.  
But then he felt his heartbeat.  
And then he felt her heartbeat.  
Both heartbeats were slowing, getting back to normal.  
He kept listening.  
She moved first, freed herself from underneath him, but rolled onto her side with one leg draped across his hip.  
“Are you alright?” she asked and caressed his face. He watched her smile grow exponentially. “I haven’t broken you, have I?”  
He took a deep breath, then traced her lips with is fingertips.  
She kissed them.  
“What changed?” he asked her. “Why now? What did it?”  
She looked at him for a long while.  
“I could ask you the same. You’ve never pushed for this. Always backed off before you got too close to the line. Why now? Why after all these years?”  
He brought his index finger to her nose.  
“It was the spring freckle,” he said and tapped it. “It made me think about you all over again. That and a good friend who called me a P’takh.”  
Her face broke into a smile.  
“But what about you, Kathryn? Why did you let me seduce you?”  
She ran her fingers over his chest, giving him goosebumps. He shivered at the sensation, but she kept going.  
“When I was on shore leave, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I wished you were there. I wanted to share everything with you, and it made me realized that I love you in a much more complicated way than I thought. And, well, I wanted to see if you still felt anything for me at all, and well, you seemed to, and I, well, I didn’t want to let that go this time. We’re so far from home. And it feels further every day. And I need you. I want you.”  
He kissed her.  
“I feel so much for you I don’t know what to do with it half of the time,” he said, then put his mouth over her nipple and sucked lightly.  
“Hmmm. I love you,” she said.  
“I’m so glad.”  
“And all because of the spring freckle,” she giggled.  
“Make sure I’ll thank your sister one day,” he said, looking up at her. They smiled, and at the same time they said: “The silly sausage,” before falling apart and laughing, in utter giddy, breathless delight.


End file.
